The importance of the role of the media in Australian politics is unquestioned. The media play a crucial role in informing participants in democratic processes, so this chapter has a strong relationship with Chapter 1. The media affect political behaviour (Chapter 3); they are also sometimes taken to be a political institution, reflecting debates about the ways in which political institutions are understood in Chapter 2. Even if they are not considered in this way, the media certainly constitute a site in which dominant discourses are produced or reproduced (see Chapter 5). Their role as an important part of the political process must also be viewed in light of their reproduction or support for the social structures that are critiqued in critical theories (see Chapter 4). The role of media organisations as non-state actors in international politics – representing the world to Australia and Australia to the world – can be understood through the international relations theories discussed in Chapter 6.